The Pen Addict 159/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	159
Title:	A Woodpecker Ate My Pencil
Release Date:	June 15th, 2015
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 159
Audio File:	Audio Episode 159
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 159
Length:	6666 min <br />1.1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 159. Today's show is brought to you by lynda.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts, Karras Customs, it's quality bro, and field notes. I'm not writing it down to remember it later, I'm writing it down to remember it. Now, The Pen Addict is a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined, as always, by the Ayatollah of Ink, Mr. Brad Dowdy. Don't start this again. I don't know why I wanted to do it today, but I felt like kicking out old school.

Brad Dowdy: You're going to get in so much trouble for that.

Myke Hurley: Here we go! I don't know, man, I don't know if I'm doing it or not, but I did it today.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to tell Kanuni Renishin on you, and it's going to be on.

Myke Hurley: I'm ruining everything for everyone.

Brad Dowdy: Well, what's up, buddy? You're back from a long world travels. Are you resting your head on a bed of Retro 51s?

Myke Hurley: I wish. I think I'm a little sleep-deprived, hence the crazy rhymes again today.

WWDC

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I would imagine. That's good. Loopy Myke on the podcast. It's usually Caffeine Brad, but we'll go with Loopy Myke today. Okay, so that's good. So WWDC, you were there last week, and when you travel, or when I travel, I like to know two things. Number one, what did you take with you personally? And then number two, what was the pin-spotting situation like at WWDC? Did you see anyone, any listeners, any pin news? So start me off with what you took personally when you traveled on this special occasion.

Myke Hurley: I will say WWDC, for anyone who doesn't know, is Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. I have a lot of friends that they hold in San Francisco every year, and I attend not to attend the conference itself, but to hang out with people. Like, I have a lot of friends and stuff that do attend the conference or are in and around San Francisco at that time of year, so I always go and hang out with them so I get to see people and do business and stuff like that. So I didn't take anything super special. I had a couple of field notes in different variations and or sizes. I also took a Retro 51. I took a Karas Customs Inc. I swear all of this is not just because these companies are our sponsors. And I think that was about it, really. I didn't take too much this time because I didn't really expect to be using them very much, to be honest. So I went pretty light on this travel.

Brad Dowdy: Your Karas Customs was a rollerball, right? Your rollerball ink?

Myke Hurley: No, I took a fountain pen.

Brad Dowdy: Really? Was it inked?

Myke Hurley: It was inked.

Brad Dowdy: And it traveled well?

Myke Hurley: I didn't actually use it when I was there. I didn't use pens at all for the entire week. Mm-hmm. But I expected to be okay. The reason I took it was because I thought, if something's going to leak, that's the one that I'm confident would do the least damage. You know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because that thing is all tied up.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. We actually got someone that follows us on Instagram. I forget who it was. I didn't have this in the show notes. That they're definitely on Team Myke. They traveled with their fountain pens inked up and they leaked. So they were on Team Myke on that one. It happens, man. I'm telling you. Yeah. It happens. It happens. So when you got there, you didn't really get to use any of your stuff. But did you have any pen adventures? Any pen addict listeners? Readers? Anyone you meet up with there out at WWDC outside of the Apple folks you were looking to meet?

Myke Hurley: So there were definitely a few people. So I saw a good friend of the show, Mr. Doug Beal, who is a real help in the chat room every week. Yeah, Doug. Me and Doug hung out a little bit. Doug's the man. Doug was in and around the town. So he come and was hanging out with us a touch. And Doug brought his Relay shirt with some fabric pens. And he got basically everybody that was there from Relay to sign the shirt. Which prompts me to say that fabric pens suck.

Myke Hurley: There's no good way to sign a t-shirt. Like, it just doesn't work. It's really upsetting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I haven't reviewed any fabric pens. So, yeah, I don't know what to tell you there. Or I don't know what to tell Doug there.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that was terrible. And I also met a good friend of the show and host of the Erasable podcast, Mr. Andy Wellfley.

Brad Dowdy: Yay. Awesome. He told me he was going to try to sneak up on you when you were out there and stab you in the back with a sharpened pencil. But, yeah, I'm glad y'all got to meet up. That's great.

Myke Hurley: He didn't do the pencil stabbing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I was just making that up.

Myke Hurley: But we did hang out. We went to a comedy show together. And it was really good fun. And it was really nice to see him. He's taller than I thought he would be.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, he gets that in listening to the Erasable show and his travels here recently from New York and San Francisco. That seems to be a recurring theme that he gets the, oh, you're taller than I anticipated.

Myke Hurley: He's taller than me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And you and I are about the same height, I believe, right? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: He actually posted a picture of us on Instagram. And I'll put that into the show notes. Cool.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. Well, good. Did you come away with any Apple pens?

Myke Hurley: No. I was considering going to the company store but ran out of time because that's now closed down. But my understanding, though, is actually there basically wasn't anything in the company store because they closed it down for renovations. So it probably would have been a waste of time anyway.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I saw a picture of it. It was empty. So the timing wouldn't have worked out, I don't think.

Brad Dowdy: Well, good. So it was a good trip.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I got a couple of presents. Oh, wow. But I'm going to talk about those later on in the show.

DC Pen Show

Brad Dowdy: Nice. Nice. All right. So you ready to move on from there? Yeah, I am. Go on to the next topic? All right. So I'm going to be doing a little bit of traveling here myself coming up in August. Me and Mr. Jeff Bruckwickwee of NotCo, we will be at the DC Pen Show, which I've let some people know about. I figure it's getting close enough to let everyone know that we will be there at the Pen Show, but Noc will not have a table there. What we are doing is, thanks to the kindness of Lisa Van Ness, she has basically hired us for the weekend to work the Van Ness booth on Saturday and Sunday at the DC Pen Show. So Jeff and I are getting in Thursday afternoon. We'll have Thursday night, Friday to hang, check out the show, meet and greet anyone. You know, we don't have any plans. You know, maybe we'll do like a meetup type thing, like in the hotel, kind of how we did in Atlanta. And then we'll be busy working Saturday and Sunday. But if you're going to the DC Pen Show, we definitely want to hear from you and want to meet up while we're there. So I'm pretty excited about this, Myke. I think it should be fun.

Myke Hurley: Can you explain the significance of the DC Pen Show if anybody doesn't know? Because I didn't know this until you told me.

Brad Dowdy: It's apparently the biggest Pen Show in the world. That may not be a factual statement, but it's definitely the biggest in the U.S. There's probably some bigger ones in Japan and things like that. But it's basically the Pen Show that you go to. It's exponentially bigger than a show like Atlanta. I mean, we're like several degrees of biggerness than the Atlanta show in size, in attendance, in... Vendors. I mean, this is one where worldwide vendors will travel to this show. Like in L.A. and D.C. are the two shows that really draw from outside the country. So it's a really big deal. It's definitely the biggest one in the U.S. Just as far as I think capacity goes. Just the amount of people they push through there during the weekend of the show. And it's a pretty big deal. And I'm happy to be going as more or less a visitor on my first go-round. So then maybe next year we can figure out if we're up for having a table there at D.C., which is something we would like to do. But we're definitely not doing it this year. But we might have some things to sell, but we're not going to do the whole knock-blow-out type stuff while we're there. We're just not going to have time.

Myke Hurley: Are you going there partly to scout it? Partly to scout it. To get an idea as if you could or would want to.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So we're going to scout it. And Lisa was actually very helpful in this. She says, I actually wish I had gone and scouted it first because last year was her first D.C. Pen show. And she was overwhelmed with just the size and scope and the busyness of the show. So we're actually working for her on Saturday and Sunday because she needs the help because it's so busy. And she doesn't have some of her usual helpers that she brings with her on the show. So she offered to bring us up there for that. And as long as we'd work for her on Saturday and Sunday. And we're like, yeah, that'd be great. And that way we can get a feel for the show. She says that would have been super helpful for her before last year just to kind of know what to expect. Because there was so much that she was caught off guard with just because it's so busy. It's not like another Pen show experience can get you ready for the show. So I'm looking forward to it. I know a bunch of readers and listeners have gone to D.C. I know that if, you know, a lot of Fountain Pen fans that if there's one show they travel to during the year, it's the D.C. show. So I expect it will be quite packed and I look forward to it. It should be really, really exciting, I think.

Myke Hurley: I'm a little bit jealous.

Brad Dowdy: Well, you can get on a plane.

Myke Hurley: I don't know if I can make another trip. Currently, I'm definitely back in the States in October. I might be back in September.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Did you apply for XO? So I applied for XO, yeah. So that's, so I'm going to D.C. in August, middle of August. So that's the 13th through the 16th. I'm going to Las Vegas just for a quick trip the beginning of first week of September. And then I'm hopefully going to Portland the third week of September. So that's pretty nuts if all of that comes through.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. XO is a not, it's not decided in the Hurley House yet as to whether we're going. No, I mean, not even if we're getting in. We've not yet decided if we're actually going to go just because of the cost. To get us both out there for the week. Because we're trying to stay for a place right now. So it might not be the best thing to do.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, and I'm in the exact same situation. I've applied. And if I get in, I don't have a firm decision on whether I'm going to spend the money to go.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, exactly. We just figured we'd apply. Because if we get declined, then it kind of answers it for us in some ways.

Brad Dowdy: So that's not 100% on me. If I'm lucky enough to be picked, it's definitely not 100% that I'm going. So that's just on the calendar. So yeah, it's a busy next few months. And Knox one-year anniversary is coming up next week. So we're getting busy for that. So it's a busy time for me. These summer months, which should be laid back, relaxing, are pretty much hammer time all summer. Which is good.

Myke Hurley: Are you doing anything special for the anniversary?

New Product

Brad Dowdy: Not super special. We're introducing a new product. And our new colorway is going to be widely available. The green and yellow colorway is going to come in all the cases. And then we'll be introducing a new paper product, which hopefully I can announce next week. Or maybe the week after. We'll see. I don't know if it's going to be before or after the 25th. So we'll see. Maybe next week I can announce the new paper product.

Brad Dowdy: But it'll be cool. Yeah. It will be very cool, actually. I know what it is.

Myke Hurley: And it is.

Brad Dowdy: Sneaky, sneaky. Yeah. So yeah, it's going to be good. I'm pretty excited about it. Just pretty excited about it. And it's different than notebooks we've done already. So I'll just leave it at that.

Myke Hurley: All right. Should I take a break? Yeah, sure. This week's episode is brought to you by lynda.com, the online learning platform that has over 3,000 on-demand video courses to help you strengthen your business technology and creative skills. You can get yourself a free 10-day trial at lynda.com slash penaddict. That's L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash penaddict. lynda.com is for people that want to learn great stuff. It's people that want to solve problems. It's people that are curious about new things or people who want to just make things happen in their lives. Maybe you are somebody, you have a job, you love your job, but you want to get better at it, right? This is something that many people feel. Or maybe you have a side business. You love your side business. You want to get better at it and turn it into your real job. These are the types of things that lynda.com can help you with, right? They can help you learn new skills that you can help apply in other ways. So maybe you want to learn body language and negotiation tactics to make you better in the boardroom, right? You want to be able to go in and get the job done. Maybe you want to learn how to make an iPhone app, right? Something you've always wanted to do. You can go and do it. Maybe you want to learn how to use marketing correctly to create shareable content. They have viral marketing courses. Maybe you're just wanting to get started with a business. They have courses on bootstrapping your business. They have courses on business fundamentals, marketing fundamentals. They have getting things done so you can be productive. They have courses on everything at lynda.com. You can go from start to finish creating a business if you want with these guys. They are absolutely fantastic. And the people that they're going to have teaching you are absolute experts. They're really passionate about teaching. And they will basically make sure that you can learn exactly how you want when you want. You can watch their videos in any order that you like. They're broken down into bite-sized pieces to make them easy to pick up and also easy to move them around if you need to. You can stream these courses on demand. They're allowing you to learn at your own schedule. And you can also learn wherever you want as well with their Android and iOS devices you can learn on the go. You can browse each course transcript so you can follow along. Or you can even search those transcripts later to find an answer and skip right to that point in the video. You can also create and save playlists of your courses that you want to watch to customize your own path of learning. You can then later share them with your friends, colleagues, and team members so they can learn the same way that you have. Your lynda.com membership will give you unlimited access to training on hundreds of topics all for one flat rate. Whether you're looking to become an industry expert, whether you're passionate about a hobby, or if you just want to learn something new, go and visit lynda.com slash penaddict. That's l-y-n-d-a dot com slash penaddict. And you'll be able to get your free 10-day trial. This will also help support the show. So if you're looking for a way to support this podcast, go to lynda.com, sign up, try out a few courses, and if you like it, stick around and learn awesome stuff. Thank you so much, lynda.com, for the continued support of this show and RelayFM. So what do we have, Mr. Dowdy?

Brad Dowdy: We have the new Blackwing Volumes. Just came in the limited edition subscription thing that they were doing. We talked about recently. You remember that?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So this one's called Blackwing Volumes 725, and we'll have a link in the show notes to go to the story about why they chose that number, and it's basically around the Newport Folk Festival, some numbers relating to that, and it's also kind of a guitar-based sunburst finish on the pencil. What do you think about the look of this pencil, Myke? I think it looks very nice. Very nice indeed. It's really good looking. So you're not a subscriber of this, right? I would assume not. It doesn't seem like your thing. So I'm a subscriber. I got mine in on Saturday. They are really, really beautiful pencils. I am very much going to enjoy using them. I am using them today for the show notes. They're writing wonderfully. I have read all the pencil guys, Johnny and Tim and Andy, have kind of gone over what's on the inside of this pencil, like what the core graphite is, and they are thinking it's very similar to what the Blackwing Pearl is. I certainly don't have that fine of a knowledge of the pencils to know, but it's a very soft, very, it's a little bit dark lead. It's real nice to write with, of course. All these Blackwings are really nice to write with. So I have one dilemma, and that's in, this is the first time with a pencil that I've actually been not thrilled with my classroom-friendly pencil sharpener. Now what the classroom-friendly pencil sharpener does, it gives you a very, very long pointy point. So it sharpens the pencil unbelievably well, unlike any sharpener I've ever used before. Why?

Myke Hurley: Classroom-friendly?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Is that a brand?

Brad Dowdy: That's the brand. Classroom-friendly is the brand.

Myke Hurley: I've never heard of that before.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We've talked about it on the show. Glad you're paying attention.

Myke Hurley: I don't remember. How long ago did we talk about woodcase pencils?

Brad Dowdy: We've talked about it before, just because it's the sharpener I use. But what it does is it leaves teeth marks. It's got this clamping system when you sharpen it, it leaves teeth marks. On any other pencil, that hasn't bothered me at all. On this one, it does, because this pencil is really all about this sunburst finish, and it really detracts from it. So I need to get a new sharpener. And I've been looking at this sharpener that a bunch of the pencil bloggers have been reviewing called the Coombe Masterpiece Sharpener. It's a metal handheld sharpener. It's like a two-phase sharpener. You sharpen the... You strip away the wood in one side of the sharpener, and then you sharpen the point of the lead in the other side of the sharpener. And you get the same long point that the Classroom Friendly does.

Myke Hurley: That's what that was for. I remember these as a kid, and I just thought they were for different sizes of pencils. I had no idea that that's what the one and two were for.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So what it does, it gives that long... I'm not such... I'm not a huge pencil guy, so when I use them, I really prefer the really long sharpened point. You know how you can get the real short sharpened point on a pencil? Right? You know what I mean? Like a real short kind of cone sharpening. These give a really long one.

Myke Hurley: I was a short guy when I was a kid.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's not surprising. You're still a short guy.

Myke Hurley: And next to Andy.

Brad Dowdy: Pencils. Yes, that's true.

Brad Dowdy: So I want a long point sharpener like the Classroom Friendly, and so I think the Coombe masterpiece is going to be something I need to look in. But if there's anything else out there, listeners, that I need to look at to get the same kind of point I'm getting on the Classroom Friendly sharpener in a handheld sharpener that's not going to put teeth on my pencil. And I know I can modify the Classroom Friendly sharpener, and I just haven't done it to get rid of these teeth marks. But it really hasn't bothered me until now, just because this pencil is so cool to look at. And as I use it, it's just going to go up the barrel, and it's going to look kind of ridiculous. So it'll look like a woodpecker ate my pencil. So anyway, the Blackwing volumes, they nailed it on their first release, which is a good thing. The packaging was great. The design was great. The story was great. It's across the board. They really did exactly what you need to do to launch a new product, especially one that's relatively expensive, to be quite honest. So you kind of got to nail it right out the gate, and I think they did. I think this is a home run, and I'm anxious to see what they do three months from now when they release the next quarterly edition. So I'm real happy with it.

Myke Hurley: I saw a few people mentioning, and I don't know if they were complaining, that there appears to be white underneath the color.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: Is that a problem? I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. It seems like a feature to me, but I don't know how pencils are finished, but there must be a white lacquered layer underneath, and then the other layer on top of it. I don't know. I won't pretend to know how they're finished, because the stamping is white on the pencil, so I don't know if that's the underlayer. So we'll have to see. Maybe someone can answer that for us. I don't know enough about the pencil design. But yeah, there's definitely... So when you sharpen it, like the little wave of the sharpener around the edge of the paint job on the pencil, that edge is white. So that doesn't bother me, but I mean, I could... I don't know. Maybe it's some issue for some people. Maybe they just want it to be straight up the color of the sunburst, but we'll see.

Brad Dowdy: We'll see. So we'll have to find out. Someone give me an answer on that if that's really a big deal. But it's not a big deal to me.

Sailor Pens

Brad Dowdy: What is a big deal to me, Myke? Our Sailor fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: For some reason that I don't have an answer for, Sailor, in my opinion, does a better job with keeping their product line up to date than both Pilot and Platinum combined. So those three get lumped in together as the big three Japanese fountain pen brands. I think Pilot is my favorite just from a nib quality feel standpoint writing.

Brad Dowdy: Sailor makes the most... The best looking pens out of the crew. And they make the most variety of pens. They're always introducing, you know, a limited edition. They're doing something crazy with the colors. And they're doing it at a price point in line with their other pens.

Brad Dowdy: Pilot and Platinum don't seem to do that. They don't seem to have the change, the turnover in their product lineup as frequently. Platinum, as a matter of fact, just came out with a really cool pen that I've been waiting for. And it's kept me off the Platinum 3776 because of the gold furniture. They just came out with rhodium plated furniture in like a smoke black and a chartreuse blue. Really deep, deep translucent barrel that are super pretty. So Platinum's just done that. But they've had the same 3776 line for years with no change in it. And Pilots had the same, you know, 91, 74, 92, 912 line for years. Sailor has their same stock lines. Progear, Progear Slim, 1911. But then they supplement those lineups all the time with new pens. So I've just ordered one of the new limited edition ones. And it's the Sapporo, which is the Progear Slim. It's called the Sailor Progear Slim Starburst Galaxy Fountain Pen. So have you clicked over to this link, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I wish I could see a bigger image of this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's a really cool, it's like a, yeah, it's black. It's like a black resin barrel with...

Myke Hurley: Glitter, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: It's kind of glittery. It's supposed to, you know, it's called the Starburst Galaxy. It's supposed to look like the night sky filled with stars. It's really, really pretty. Of course, it's a rhodium trim pen. And so that's what got me interested in it first. And it's dark and the sparkles look great. And it's fairly priced for a limited edition of 500. It's $199, where I think the regular Sapporo Slims are like around $149. I'd have to go back and look. But it's not like double the price or crazy, you know, some crazy price. And Sailor seems to do this better than Pilot and Platinum. For some reason, I don't know. You know, there's always something cool popping up in Sailor's lineup. And, you know, I don't want to complain about Pilot and Platinum because I love those pens a lot too. But it always seems like sailors kind of creeping to the top of the list with the non-stock items. They do a really good job. So I wanted to point that one out because I haven't really heard anyone talking about it. And to me, this pen really speaks to me. I mean, this thing's right up my alley. So I ordered it. It doesn't ship until November. But I'm anxious to get it, and I will be using it right away when it arrives. So this was Sailor's the same one, Myke, that I sent you the link to the pen that you didn't like because you're not a big demonstrator fan. But they, like, did that Piccadilly Circus one, that red kind of demonstrator one I sent you a while back. Like, you didn't like that. But I like the fact just that they make that pen, period. You know, whether it's necessarily, you know, up your alley or not. Just the fact that they're doing things like that, it really makes me a fan of Sailor a lot.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So something I'm not a fan of, Myke, and I think it's fair, is Moleskines. Not a big Moleskine guy. And, you know, a lot of people, you know, in this world. Moleskine. A lot of people that listen to this podcast. And there's nothing inherently wrong with Moleskine. I don't want to eviscerate them for no good reason. It's just that they're not the most friendly paper for all types of inks. It's a fact. They're just not. So there was an article in The New Yorker by a gentleman named David Sachs this weekend. It says, Why Startups Love Moleskines. And, you know, he just went through the spiel. He's actually, once I got to the end of the article, and I'm going to jump to the end and read the highlight on David Sachs. David Sachs is the author of Save the Deli and the Tastemakers. His next book, The Revenge of Analog, will be publishing in the spring. So he has a vested interest in publishing this article. So I just wanted to point that out. So he's writing a book about this. But his anecdote was, you know, going to a startup conference and seeing, you know, everyone at the startup conference whip out their Moleskines instead of their computers or tablets or phones or whatever. And that's cool. It's awesome. But to regurgitate the Moleskine marketing in an article like this, and he admits that. He says it can be attributed to its marketing, which is built on its associations with such famous creatives as Chatwin, Hemingway, Picasso, and Van Gogh. It just makes me want to vomit every time I hear that because it's a crappy product. I mean, Moleskine wins at marketing. They don't win at making good products. And I actually had a Twitter exchange with him. I sent something. I said, I'm not looking at the tweets, so I'm paraphrasing. I said something on the order of, you know, imagine what all these startup guys and girls would accomplish if they actually used a good product. You know, something along those lines. It's, you know, kind of in my ornery way, you know, get off my lawn a little bit.

Myke Hurley: So is he saying that it's good? Is he saying it's bad? Like, what is this guy's opinion on these products?

Brad Dowdy: His answer to my tweet was generic. I mean, it was, well, you know, any products can have, you know, any arena, any genre, any product line, any type of thing can have better choices throughout the entirety of what's available in the world. And I was like, well, that's kind of a cop-out answer. And so I said the only thing Moleskine is the best at is marketing, and that's why it's so popular. And, you know, it was a, you know, I was, it was not a very, you know, on Twitter conversations are not very helpful. So it was, you know, I wasn't going to get in a Twitter fight over it because, and I don't think it's his, he's saying that the Moleskine is the best notebook. But it's just, it's basically a Moleskine marketing article. And it just makes me ill because there's so many better products than this out there. And that was kind of the point I was trying to make, even though maybe I didn't make it appropriately. Um, but Moleskine's marketing is such a powerhouse. They get that, get that name out there and it just kind of, um, it just kind of infiltrates everything. And I wish there was a way to make it stop because, you know, there's better, so many better products out there. Um, you know, if you, if you took the name off of it and did basically, you know, your blind taste test, like you would with, you know, Coke or Pepsi, and you put three notebooks out there blindly, um, I, you would find that note, the Moleskine would finish last. And most ink tests and, uh, most writing tests. So I just thought it's a fine, this is the kind of article you're going to get out of the New Yorker. And I don't have any complaint about that. I mean, it's nice to see, you know, the analog. It's always nice to see the analog stuff getting written about, but the Moleskine love in the public domain, in the non-pen addict world. Um, I just, I just don't like to see it. I'd like to, I'd like to shake these people a little bit and say, there's better things out there. Let's not go with the one that you think Hemingway, Picasso, and Van Gogh used. And let's go with one that like works better for what you need to do today. So that's, that's my soapbox for today. Is that okay?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's fine. I just want to make sure you're okay.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry. Am I allowed more than one soapbox?

Notebook Preference

Myke Hurley: Well, I'll just, I'll just add to it and say like, look, so many people that, that I know use these products and it is the market. It's 100% marketing. Like they don't even know why they're using them.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: Like, it's just that this is the notebook. Like, what are you talking about? This is the notebook.

Brad Dowdy: Right. You, you, the answer is, wait, you mean there's other notebooks like this?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, exactly. This is the one.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, they literally do not know. So.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: That's our job. That's why we're here, Myke. We're spreading the word, spreading the gospel.

Myke Hurley: Should we take a break?

Brad Dowdy: We should.

Myke Hurley: This week's episode of The Pen Addict is also brought to you by our friends over at Karas Customs. Karas Customs are an awesome pen maker. They're based in Mesa, Arizona. All of their stuff is made in their own shop and they are proud that they are based in the US of A. These guys make a whole range of awesome products. They make the Render K, the Ink, the Bolt and the Retract, which are just all fantastic. You can get them in beautiful colors. The Retract you can get in a great two-tone now as well, which goes back to like, you know, to these old Parker pens or whatever. They just make such beautiful, beautiful stuff made of great materials like the aluminium that they have. They have brass or copper as well. You can, I like the aluminium stuff, but if you want something with a nice bit of weight, you know, you can go for the brass or copper ones as well. Although, you know, you can mix and match a little bit. You know, you can go for, I have a nice grey aluminium with a brass grip. I know, Brad, you have a similar one, right? You have the red aluminium. This is in the ink.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, in the ink. So, I love this pen. And I just ordered it in May. So, I've only had it a few weeks. And God, I love this pen. It's the ink fountain pen with the red anodized barrel with the brass section. So, it's called the Iron Man because the colors match perfectly to Iron Man's suit. And not just that. I mean, I get physical enjoyment out of using this pen because it's so different than, you know, a lot of the resin-based barrels that most fountain pens are in that, you know, if you pulled out my pen case right now, you know, it's probably all resin barrels. And I have this one killer metal barrel. And I love using it because it's so different and it writes so well. And I do want to have, not to totally hijack your read, I do have a pro tip for the Ask TPA. Hey, the first question we have is, how would you recommend getting a stub or a talic nib on a Karis Customs ink? So, I do that. I use the Franklin Kristoff nibs to swap into the Karis Customs ink. So, you can do that to give you a more variety of the nibs that they ship with. So, it's good that it's customizable that way. And this pen is going to rank really highly, like, when I do my next personal list because I can't put it down.

Myke Hurley: They really do make fantastic stuff. Like, my pro tip is to buy two inks in different colors and then you can swap the caps and stuff around, you know. I like to be able to do that. That's pretty cool. I think that's a lot of fun, too.

Myke Hurley: They're just, the stuff that Karis Customs turn out is just so fantastic. Like, they understand what it's like to be pen addicts, right? And they make stuff with love and care for pen addicts like us. Also, the guys and girls over there, they have a real connection with their customers. They're super proud of this and they try their hardest to make this something that they put at the core of what they do. They make their pens by hand. They ship them out themselves and they interact on Instagram and stuff like that directly with the people that love and use their stuff. You know Dan Bishop. We're always talking about him on the show. I've had him on the show a few times. You know how great a guy he is. He's right at the fore with Karis Customs and making this great stuff. Now, our friends over at Karis Customs are offering a 15% discount for listeners at the pen addict. If you use the code pen addict in the cart before checkout, in the shopping cart before checkout, this code is good until Father's Day, June 21st. Everything that Karis Customs makes is durable enough to pass along to the next generation. So why not give the gift that can be passed along with Karis Customs? Thank you so much to Karis Customs for supporting this week's episode, The Pen Addict, and helping us out at Relay FM. Unlike some other stuff that we've spoken about, you can actually sign birth certificates and then hand them down, these things. They're good for that.

Brad Dowdy: They're good for that. They are good. They are good for that. This pen is going to last a long time. I love it.

Brad Dowdy: I'm getting serious enjoyment out of my newest Karis Customs. As you should. As you should. If you couldn't tell. Yep. And I used their 15% off code to purchase it last month that they offered up on the pen addict. So I am not only a customer, I'm a big supporter and fan of their work. All right. We have a pen blog of the week. And it is a very great name using one of the new TLDs, Myke. It's called Gorgeous.Inc. Nice. How cool is that? So this is Paul Joins. He has been following us on Twitter for a long time. I know he's a listener and reader. And he started this blog, I don't know, I want to say about, it's been six months? I don't know exactly how long. It's relatively new, but he does a really good job. He does tons of ink reviews. Takes really pretty pictures. It looks fantastic. It has a great domain name. You know, we miss that .ink bandwagon. Ever since I've seen Paul's on there, I've been playing around with, you know, what can I come up with .ink? And I haven't come up with a good one yet, but I like Gorgeous.Inc. It's easy to remember. And Paul does a great job. So head over to Gorgeous.Inc and check out the pen blog of the week. And tell Paul we said hi.

Myke Hurley: You do that.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So I've rambled on a lot this episode, but I do have some hashtag Ask TPA questions. And please keep those coming in Twitter. Even if I don't get to it today or Myke and I don't cover it in this episode, this is a running list. We will get to your questions and answer them as best we can. And there's some really good stuff that y'all are coming up with in these questions. So one of them from Mark Yeager I wanted to go over. He says, what have you done to improve the mechanics of your handwriting? Were you blessed with good handwriting or had to work at it? So I want to ask you something, Myke, first. And I promise I'm not going to make fun of you. Has your handwriting improved since you were younger or has it regressed? I'm just curious. Do you think you had better handwriting when you were younger? Like, say, in school. Not like when you were a kid. Not like when you were eight. But like when you were in high school. No, I think it's better now.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think mine is better now than it used to be.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I actually think mine is better now, too. But I did always have, I always kind of had neat handwriting. I was writing in cursive a lot in school. That's all we wrote in. And mine was always clean and readable. But my handwriting is better now. And it's actually because I had to work on it. So I've told the story about how I had a drafting job at one point after college. And it was not on computer. It was all hand done. So that actually improved the mechanics of my handwriting. You do have to work at having good handwriting. I think there is a little bit, you know, inherent in how you write and just how you are. Kind of your personality. It probably has to do with, you know, the pace and the speed and the intensity in which you write. But I think to improve it, to make it better, you have to work at it. It's not going to come naturally. You can improve your handwriting. I'm proof of that. My handwriting was never awful. But my handwriting didn't take off until I worked at it at this drafting job. I'd go home, get a ledger pad, and just write letters over and over and over again. Write the alphabet. One letter at a time. You know, write A's all the way across the page. Write B's all the way across the page. In the style that I wanted to kind of build into my handwriting. You know, it's definitely a muscle memory thing. You can change. We've talked about changing certain letters or numbers. Like when I said I changed my four of all things, you know, a year ago. I literally had to work at it. So now I always write my four in the new way where I didn't used to write it. So you have to work at it to get a good handwriting. So we had a question from My Other Pants. And this is a really good name. Good Twitter handle. It says, can you have someone on to discuss dip pens, brushes, and fountain pens for drawing and sketching? And all I can tell you is I'm working on that. And it's going to be a good one if I can make this happen. So, yes, I can have someone. And no, I won't tell you who it is until I can actually deliver it. Everyday Commentary wants to know why there's no swearing on the show. Do you want me to answer that, Myke? I know the answer. I'm raising my hand. We do not want the explicit tag in the iTunes store. Is that a fair statement?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, it doesn't bother me to have the explicit tag. It's what the explicit tag does that is my issue. Like, all swearing does is exclude people. Like, us keeping the show clean doesn't exclude anybody. Like, there isn't anybody that's going, I don't swear on this show. I will not listen. But if we start swearing, there'll be two things will happen. People might not be able to listen to our family members. And or they may be personally offended. So that's why we don't have any swearing on the show.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So no swearing on the show. Lots of swearing in real life. Yeah. So we save it for that. All My Pens wants to know about tips for caring for rubber grips. Avoiding lint, dust, food. They attract everything and get yucky so easily. Why are they so popular? I have no idea. And there is no way to avoid that. It's just gross. I always, the only rubber grip pen I use with any frequency is the Jetstream Alpha, which is my favorite rubber grip pen. Also because it takes the Jetstream refills. And I keep the 0.5 blue millimeter refill in that pen. And when I see it getting too grimy with lint or dust, I just wipe it off in a t-shirt, like a cotton t-shirt. Just real softly and just, you know, until that stuff gets off. There's really no way to avoid it that I know of. I wouldn't want to put any kind of chemical on it. I don't know how it would react to the different grip materials. But it's nothing but annoying. And the best thing you can do is not store it with other pens, pencils, in a bag. And that's kind of hard to do. You kind of got to keep it separate from everything else.

Brad Dowdy: So this is an interesting one, Myke, from Goran Verbinski. He says, when I hear the Pen Addict podcast music, this is what I see in my head. And he sent a picture on Twitter. I had no clue what that picture was. I couldn't tell anything about that picture. So I reversed image searched it. And it turns out it's the Red Hot Chili Peppers video for, what's the video called?

Brad Dowdy: Dina California? Dina California?

Myke Hurley: Is that right? Danny. Danny California.

Brad Dowdy: Danny California. So have you listened to the beginning of this song? No, I haven't. You should. It's like, oh my God, that sounds like our intro. It's pretty funny. I'm not a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan. So I don't know their music. So it didn't come up in my head right away. But I'll Be Damned at the beginning of that doesn't sound like the beginning of our podcast. So you will have to check that out.

Myke Hurley: Let me hear it now. Hang on. All right. Yeah, I know this song. Yeah, I can see that. I can see that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, once I played it, I knew the song. Yeah. But yeah, I could totally see that being the, having, definitely favoring it. You know, what I think of when I hear the Pen Addict podcast music is Tim Wassum's kid bouncing up and down in the kitchen chair. Yeah. But that's all I will ever think of when I hear the Pen Addict podcast music. So this is a good question in relation to our talk on custom pens. Lokes wants to know, would trying to get spare parts for custom pens prove to be an impossible task? That's a very good question. And my answer is no, because the parts that are going to break down in a custom pen are going to be the parts that are easily replaceable. A nib, a feed, a converter, those types of things. Your pen barrel, which is really what you're buying from a custom pen maker, is not going to have a problem. I mean, if it is, you send it back to them, they fix it. But anything related to a clip, you know, any extra, you know, anything that the pen maker is not making themselves, that's the stuff that's the most easily replaceable. So I don't think that's a hang up at all in trying to get, you know, any parts or replacement parts for custom pens. That would never come into the discussion for me for getting a custom pen.

Brad Dowdy: This is a question I don't know the answer of, but I am very interested to know, and I should have done some research on it. So this is from LeRae. Is there a known reason why blue ink is a standard when similar tones of other colors like green are unorthodox? I mean, the only answer that comes to my head is how most legal documents wanted some type of blue ink to separate themselves from the black on the paper so you could actually see the notations, the signatures, things like that. They wanted something non-black so it would stand out from any black printing. But I don't know if it goes back farther than that from, you know, older traditional iron gall inks. You know, did they, whatever the materials they were using just leaned to that blue and then drying into black. But these days when you get a fountain pen, it almost always ships with like a blue cartridge.

Brad Dowdy: And I don't know the real answer to that. That's my only kind of sort of answer.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's weird because blue feels like it's close to black or that it feels more conservative. But I wonder if that's just the way I've been led to believe now.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. I don't know if there is like an actual legitimate documented answer on why that's the case. But any, you know, if you get a new pen, if you get a Lamy, you know, it ships with a blue ink cartridge. The only pen I've ever received where I got a black ink cartridge that I can think of. I think pilots ships with black ink cartridges, if I'm not mistaken. But it seems like the vast majority is blue. Blue always seems to be the one standard ink. And I'm not exactly sure why. So I don't know if there's a real reason behind that. So we got a few more to get to. But we want to talk about another one of our good friends, Myke.

Field Notes Paper

Myke Hurley: Yeah, this week's episode is also brought to you by Field Notes. So I'm sure that everybody listening to this show right now knows that currently the Field Notes Colours edition that is available is the Workshop Companion Edition. It is a six-book set in a custom sleeve. It comes with a set of stickers as well that is themed with the books around electrical work, plumbing, painting, gardening, automotive, and woodworking. They are each a common project that is done around the house. Now, I mentioned I received a couple of gifts this week. And there are actually two sets of the Workshop Companion Edition I received as gifts whilst in San Francisco. Andy bought me a set and also a friend of mine, Mr. John Voorhees. He also grabbed me a set as well because he was going to pick up some for himself at the store because he lives in Chicago. And he asked considering seeing me if I wanted some. And I said yes. And I also got him to pick me up a set of Arts and Sciences because I love those. And they're going to be all gone away soon. So I wanted to make sure I still had some. So I have them here. I have my own set. The box, as you write, is very, very strong indeed. Yes. I've already stuck some stickers to my laptop. I really like the way these guys look. They have a real nice retro look to them. Like a very kind of like 50s style, you know, with the little two-tone color on the front, like the light and dark color. There's something good about them. It harkens back to a simpler time, which also ties quite nicely in with the theme of like the, you know, handiwork, you know. Oh, yeah. There's something about it that really works. And the thing I'm most surprised about is the paper quality. This is so thick.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This is the 70-pound paper. It's a little different than the type they've used. So the other 70-pound editions were America the Beautiful and Shelterwood. So this makes the third one. But this is a different Finch paper than those other two. And it actually holds fountain pen ink better than any other field notes that I've used personally.

Myke Hurley: So it has – it's more like textured. And I tried some ink tests on it. And I used a bunch of fountain pens. And there is no bleed through on this. Nope. Like it's kind of really surprising how well this stuff retains the ink. Like it is not coming through. I even used a marker pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. If you look at it, you don't think it because it's off-white and you can see the fibers in the paper. And so the first thing you think, just logically think, well, this is going to be a little bit porous. And it's going to soak up the ink a little bit. And it really doesn't. It does a great job.

Myke Hurley: Nope. I'm really impressed with this edition. I think it's beautiful. I love the spines, you know, with the edition, like saying what color it is and that kind of thing. And what, you know, what its intended use is for. I love that each of the backs of them have like information about like electrical work. Like it has wire gauge information, pipe size information on plumbing.

Myke Hurley: I really like that stuff. I like it when they go to that little extra. Yeah. Just for, you know, for fun.

Brad Dowdy: That's the edition I'm using today for the show notes is the electric edition with my Blackwing pencil. It obviously handles pencil great.

Myke Hurley: Of course. So, yeah, I really, really love this edition. If for some reason you have yet to pick up a set, then you really should do that. I really, really think you should. This is a great edition for you to start with or to buy as a gift. You know, we mentioned Father's Day. This is like a perfect Father's Day gift for someone. I really think that this is one that people should own because it's so fun and unique. And I know these are going to sell out quickly. So you should probably get in there straight away and go get them. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So combine this edition with your Karis Customs ink fountain pen and you're golden. You're like the best son or daughter ever.

Myke Hurley: Yep. This. Yeah. I think these are really, really fantastic. I think you should check them out for yourself. You should go to fieldnotesbrand.com slash workshop. You'll find out all the information that you need there. You can buy them separately, as I mentioned, but you really should be buying a year-long colour subscription. So you just get these things mailed to you automatically because they're just so worth it. I've always been very, very happy with my Field Notes editions and I think that you will too. And if you buy a year-long colour subscription starting with Workshop Companion and use the code RELAY, you'll pick up three carpenter pencils and a three pack of pitch black memo books for free. They'll just chuck those in the order for you. You want to hurry because when these things sell out, they're gone. They won't be coming back. So you've got to hurry up and get them. Field Notes, I'm not writing it down to remember it later. I'm writing it down to remember it now.

Brad Dowdy: Alright, speaking of paper that works well with fountain pens, this is one I don't have an answer to, so I wanted to bring it to the crowd. John P. McDaniel wants to know, a good recommendation for stationary note cards that work well with fountain pens? This is a very specific question. I read this as like, you know, the thank you cards, the heavy stock, thick, you know, maybe letterpress like our friends at Hobion cards. You know, that work well with fountain pens. Usually that thick paper and fountain pens generally don't go hand in hand. So I don't know. I mean, there's plenty of stationary like Clairefontaine. And I'm wrecking my brain on the other name I'm missing at the moment. That makes them really, really nice fountain pen friendly stationary. But for a physical card, say like a four by six that you're going to use as like a thank you note to someone. That's really, really specific. And I never, I just haven't tested many of those to know what would work well with fountain pens. There's just not a lot available in that arena. So I don't know what it would, what the real answer that is. So if anyone has experience with a stationary note card that works well with fountain pens, get in touch with us. I would like to know myself.

Pilot Mew 701

Brad Dowdy: All right. This next question I like a lot, Myke, is from Phil Walters. Just got a brand new uninked old stock Pilot Mew 701. How do you feel about buying pens just for an investment not to use?

Brad Dowdy: I don't feel about that because I don't do it. If I'm buying something, I buy it to use.

Brad Dowdy: And that's a recurring theme with me. I'm not going to get into. I have more pens and paper and ink than any normal human being can use in the rest of their life. Even a family of 10, you know, they'd be stocked for the rest of their life. But I don't have any pens sitting here or any paper sitting here that I wouldn't use. You know, you know, I'm not using everything every day, obviously. But there's nothing I have ever purchased that sits unused because I want to keep it for an investment. That never enters my mindset at all in any of this. You know, even with the field notes stuff. Sure, I have plenty of old field notes. But I'll crack open, you know, a butcher orange and use it. I just don't care. I'm buying the stuff to use and get personal enjoyment out of it. If I get into the investment thing, that's, yeah, that's not my style. That's not something I'm going to be looking for. So I buy stuff to use it. And I know you're not as deep into it as me, Myke, but I have a feeling you're generally the same way.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I would definitely agree with you. I'm pretty much the same.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. So, you know, it's a good question. It's a valid question. Like a new, un-inked, old stock Pilot Mew 701. That's a really hard pen to find. You know, it's from the 70s. I don't own one because most of the ones I've seen are pretty well dinged up. But even if I bought a new one, I'd be inking it up and using it. It's just, it's personal preference. You know, if you want to buy it for an investment, that's great.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I buy pens to use, not to store away. Like, you know, I kind of find it hard to, I don't really want to say it outweighly because I don't want to criticize people. But yeah, if that's what you want to do, then go for it. But like, I think that you're maybe denying yourself or somebody else the use of a great pen.

Brad Dowdy: Sure, sure. Yeah, it's no criticism at all. You know, there's all kinds of ways to do this. Do what you like. Do what you want to do. I just don't personally use it. So, I mean, I just don't personally not use them. I always use what I purchase. So, yeah, that's all good. So, Oralita Z has a question about where I've mentioned several choices for customizing nibs. But her question was most of the big name guys say Masuyama or Mata Shaw. They're looking at three to four months turnaround time. Who else is out there? You know, please provide links to nibmeisters we can send expensive pens to. So, I use Myke Masuyama a lot. I've never used John Mata Shaw outside of making a purchase from him. That's nibs.com where I bought Nakaya from.

Brad Dowdy: But I do use Sean Newton a lot. And his turnaround time is very reasonable. So, we'll put a link to him in the show notes. It's in the weeks, not months range. And Dan Smith, who I have not used, who is at thenibsmith.com. But I plan on using Dan here soon. And everyone I've talked to or read about who's used Dan raves about his work. And I think he's, I don't know what his schedule's like. But I think he's probably more in the one-month range than the three-month range. So, Sean Newton and Dan Smith are definitely people who come highly recommended. And whose time to return their pen is not in the quarter of a year range. So, you would get it back quickly.

Brad Dowdy: Alright, main suitcase. Or, no, man in suitcase. Wow, we got some good Twitter handles today. Could you recommend a super dark void-like black ink? For me, that is the Noodler's Borealis Black. And that's the darkest that I've used, personally. There's others that will say Noodler's Heart of Darkness. I have not compared the two directly. Looking at pictures, I think Borealis is darker. Borealis was made in...

Brad Dowdy: Retaliation's not the right word. But in Aurora Black, it's considered the darkest state. Standard black ink.

Brad Dowdy: So, Noodler's kind of played off Aurora's name and made Borealis Black to mimic Aurora's Black. So, between Aurora Black and Noodler's Borealis Black, I haven't used a darker black ink. In the chat room, reference error says Borealis is horrible on almost all paper. I've never had a problem with it, although I don't use it that frequently. Whenever I have used it, like on Rhodia and things like that, I've never had an issue. But, you know, I won't profess to have been using it on all kinds of different papers. So, we'll have to see. And between Aurora Black, Borealis Black, and what most people would say is Noodler's Heart of Darkness, those are probably your three best choices.

Brad Dowdy: What's the best mechanical pencil lead, Myke?

Myke Hurley: I really don't know. I have no idea. I didn't even really know there was much of a difference. Maybe that makes me a lot of sense.

Brad Dowdy: There is. There is. And the Uni Nano Dia is the one when I asked other people what this exact question, because I've wondered myself. That's the name that comes up most frequently. It's a low wear lead, meaning it's not going to shape the tip, you know, as much. It's going to keep the tip better. And so, you see, if you're not using a Kuretoga, where you won't have to twist the pencil around to get, you know, a nice sharp point. So, Nano Dia, Uni Nano Dia, that's N-A-N-O-D-I-A.

Brad Dowdy: Is the lead that I always, when I ask this question to other people, that's the answer I always get. So, we'll see. That's, if anyone has any other recommendations, let us know. So, Supermassive wants to know, can we please have an update on the paper products you guys are using right now beyond the usual field notes? I'll answer that, Myke, because you only use field notes, right? There's not really other stuff laying around.

Myke Hurley: I didn't use anything else.

Brad Dowdy: So, I use, God, I use a lot. I use the field notes. I use the knock, whatever we call our notebooks. The black fountain pen friendly ones. I love those, obviously, but I'm biased. I use most Rhodia A5 pads, whether it's either grid or dots, spiral bound or perf staple bound. And I use Morriman a fair amount for their MemoSign pads, just because they're really, really high quality. And I like the spiral binding on those. Those are probably the four I use the most. And then, like at work, I use the Doan idea journal, the big one. I use it a lot.

Brad Dowdy: And every now and then, I sprinkle in the life notebook, which I haven't really gotten into yet. And I don't know. I'm still figuring that one out. So, yeah, for me, it's field notes, knock, Rhodia, Mormon, Doan. Outside of that, it's just one-off here and there stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Midori's one I keep threatening to get into more. Just haven't yet. But that's the main group. The fivesome. My fivesome of paper is those guys. All right, last one for today. Because I know we've run long, and I'm not even close to finishing all the Ask TPA questions. So, please keep those coming, because this is really, really good stuff that helps me learn more, too. Like today, Myke, going off the chart here, I learned, and did you know this? I reviewed the Constructor Titanium Pen on my blog today. And in Europe, it's common to say the common size for a G2 refill is what I personally consider a Parker refill. But in Europe, when you say G2 refill, that means the Parker-compatible style, not Pilot G2 refill. Did you know that?

Myke Hurley: No, and I'm very confused with what you just said.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's confusing. You'll have to read my review today.

Brad Dowdy: But, yeah. So, this pen. So, the Parker-style refill. You know what I'm talking about, right? So, it's like the Fisher Space Pen refill, the Moleskine Gel refill, the Shorter refill. Okay? Apparently, in Europe, if you say a G2-sized refill, that's what they're talking about.

Brad Dowdy: It's the number or nomenclature for that size refill in Europe. It doesn't have anything to do with Pilot G2, which is a completely different size refill.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I always got really confused by that, because I thought that it meant the Pilot G2. Yeah, no.

Brad Dowdy: So, I learned that today.

Myke Hurley: That explains why I was always kind of confused about that, then.

Rollerball Refills

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep, yep. So, Myke Dudek and Jimmy Reeks clarified that for me today, so I appreciate it. Okay, so last one, and it's also related to refills. So, Radalaf. I don't know how to pronounce that. Refilling rollerball refills.

Brad Dowdy: Are you tracking me here? You understand what I'm saying? Refilling rollerball refills. Are you still up for sharing my techniques, if you're interested? Blue, black ink, and a Retro 51. So, this is interesting. I've never talked to Radalaf before, but I would be interested to see how many people use, say, a Schmidt P8126 refill, empty it out, and put in a different ink. I think that's what he's getting at here, Myke. Would you be interested in that?

Myke Hurley: I feel like that it might not be as good. I feel like that they go together, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm with you.

Myke Hurley: I'm with you.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, it's interesting. And there's all kinds of weird modifications that you can do with refills and things I don't get into, but that's an interesting one.

Brad Dowdy: So, anyway, we'll leave it at that. If people are interested in refilling rollerballs, I'll find out more.

Myke Hurley: I mean, sure, because it's a fun thing to try, but I don't know if I would necessarily want to do it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. All right, mate. Let's wrap it up for today.

Myke Hurley: Cool.

Brad Dowdy: This was a good episode. I appreciate all the feedback we've been getting. And, Myke, how can people get in touch with us?

Myke Hurley: There's a couple of ways you can do that. If you want to send tweets to the show for feedback, follow-up, or questions, you can always... If you just use the hashtag AskTPA on Twitter, they will go into our lovely document, and Brad will pick out some, and we'll address them on each episode. This isn't like the format of the show now, by the way. We just had quite a bunch come in, and we're just getting some done. But I'm sure we'll be going back to normal topics, and we'll be mixing the AskTPA stuff in as well. We kind of move around up and down, backwards and forwards, that kind of thing. So just try and out some new stuff to make sure that the show continues to be exciting and interesting as we are entering our 159th episode this week.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, yes. And let me sidebar you real quick. We are working on a new round of guests for the podcast. And if you have a specific person you would like me to get in touch with, for Myke and I, to have on the podcast, let us know. We'd love to hear.

Myke Hurley: Indeed, and there's a couple of ways you can do that. You can tweet Brad. He is at Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M, and you can find his work and more ways to contact him over at penaddict.com. And I am at iMike, I-M-Y-K-E, on Twitter. This show has been brought to you by our friends over at lynda.com, Karas Customs, and Field Notes. Support them, please, because they support us. But most of all, thank you for listening and being here with us every single week. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.